In July the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced its latest effort to prosecute companies that practice mortgage modification scams. Code named “Operation Loan Lies,” the crackdown on predatory companies is in response to complaints from homeowners facing foreclosure.

Your best defense against these attacks is to know their tactics. When a company guarantees to modify your loan or stop the foreclosure after you pay up front, beware. You’ll likely lose more money yet still be faced with foreclosure.

While the scams originated in California, 25 federal and state agencies are now involved in combating this growing fraud.

While avoiding these scams, consider filing for bankruptcy as a legitimate, detailed alternative.  Your effort to reorganize your finances through Chapter 13 bankruptcy will stop a foreclosure for the period that you are in bankruptcy.

Unlike corporations, individuals like you can file for Chapter 13 of the bankruptcy code. This creates a bankruptcy estate which includes your property. A payment plan can be created which allows you to pay previous mortgage payments over time while still enabling you to meet your basic living expenses.

Not all individual cases qualify for Chapter 13, and credit limitations are created as a result of personal bankruptcy. Many states also have different rules regarding bankruptcy.

But a trusted bankruptcy attorney can evaluate your situation and serve as a legitimate advocate for your financial needs. They will be familiar with state laws regarding bankruptcy, ensuring that your actions to reduce your debt are compliant and effective.

The ultimate goal is to not only weather the financial storm, but create a detailed plan that best utilizes your finances moving forward. Quick-fix schemes will only put you further behind your payment obligations.

If you are faced with an impending foreclosure, don’t become the next victim of a mortgage modification scam. Contact a trusted local bankruptcy lawyer to explore your options.

Flush with a legislative victory, President Obama is scheduled to appear in Denver Feb. 17, when he will sign the $787 billion economic stimulus bill passed late in the day Feb. 13.  Hopeably, the bill’s passage on a Friday 13th won’t turn out to be a bad omen. That is, maybe some of the money and relief will actually reach people who need help this time–unlike the “bailout” funds that banks hoarded when the government made its little oopsie last fall and forgot to require even a minimum of loans targeted toward distressed homeowners.

After Tuesday’s signing at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the president leaves the Rockies for a Wednesday jaunt to Phoenix, where he’s expected to present his plan to stanch the hemorrhage of nationwide home foreclosures.

But Obama has a little public relations oopsie of his own: Part of the reason for the visits to Denver and Phoenix, according to a Chicago Tribune reporter, is “to refocus attention on ordinary people who might benefit from seeing the stimulus enacted.”

You know, slip out of the Beltway and mingle with the real folks… hunker down with the plebes… Well, apparently ordinary citizens got a shot at tickets to the Phoenix event, but the signing of the new bill is–according to the Denver museum–closed to the public. Posted at the museum’s Web site the day before the event, the explanation reads somewhat tersely: “This White House event is for invited guests only, and all tickets have been distributed. There are no remaining invitations.”

Oh, well, at least the hoedown for “Teachers, PTA members and school administrators” later that evening won’t get the kibosh: “Spring Educators Night scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening will still go on as planned.” …whew!

Public relations gaffe aside, the event in Phoenix may well herald an historic shift in power. Since 1979, bankruptcy judges presiding over a Chapter 13 filing have not been able to modify mortgage terms on a primary residence. Astonishingly enough, using what lenders disparage as “cram down” powers, a judge can lower the amount owed on autos, boats, credit cards–and even a vacation home. But for decades, the mortgage-lending lobby has managed a white-knuckle death grip on the terms of primary residence loans.

Of course, such power is completely understandable. According to a Feb. 6 piece in the Mercury News, keeping the judges’ hands off the note, “allows lenders to foreclose on delinquent homeowners to force quick recovery of what they’re owed — part of the reason why foreclosures are so numerous.

“According to the mortgage industry data firm RealtyTrac, lenders filed for foreclosure on 2.3 million homes last year, up 81 percent from 2007 and 225 percent higher than the filing rate in 2006.”

The article posits a sea change that has been at least a couple of years in the making. “For the past two years, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have been pushing for a change in the bankruptcy law to include principal residence loans on the list of debts that can be ‘judicially modified’ — crammed down — by the courts. They argued that banks and mortgage companies too often have been unwilling to offer delinquent borrowers serious modifications on loans because they have the option to pull the plug and foreclose.

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